Fight Prep: 2012-05-04

This is the blog title

Today's S&C session revolved around squats, cleans and presses. Just like wednesday, I started things by going through Chad Waterbury's Iron Core circuit.

Iron Core

When I reviewed the program the first time, I meantioned just how hard the "leg curl with stability hold" exercise is. Looking at the original article again, I realized I was actually making things harder than they are meant to be. In the original video, both arms are placed on the ground while performing the exercise. I, on the other hand, did this with both pointing towards the ceiling. This vastly decreases the base of stability, hence making the exercise a thousand times harder. Seems my core isn't all that weak after all. Well, since I (almost) managed to do the exercise without support from the arms, I chose to keep that up. However, I start the first of the two sets exactly as in the video to properly activate the core before challenging it hard with the modified version.

The Session

After warming up and activating the core muscles, I hit the weights for my 5/3/1 lifts. Today, it was the squat and the clean & press. The clean isn't really heavy, as the press definately is the limiting factor. Still, I prefer the C&P over the straight shoulder press, as the added explosive element will keep the heart rate high and the nervous system primed. Also, cleaning a lot improves the clean, which obviously is a good thing...

Speaking of an active nervous system, I implemented Thibaudeau's idea of adding jumps to every workout. I did doubles on vertical jumps before squatting and horizontals before pressing. I really don't know if this actually makes sense in a scenario where there's quite a lot of power cleans anyways. Then however, tossing in a handful of jumps certainly won't hurt.

As I have a fight coming up on May 19th, I chose to do the prescribed 5 reps instead of AMRAP (as many reps as possible) on the last set. This might very well diminish potential strength gains, but then on the other hand, not maxing out cuts short on my regeneration time. I just really don't want to over-train at the moment. After all, I'm a martial artist, not a powerlifter. Quite a lot of fighters completely skip lifting during the last few weeks before a fight. As I mentioned, though, I don't have an off-season to speak of this year, so just doing the prescribed minimum is something of a compromise.

I feel I did quite well on the squats. Definately had another rep or two in the tank when I re-racked the bar. On the press, however, I had to call it quits after the first rep. Don't know why and honestly, I don't care. So close to a fight, there's no time to give any doubts or negative thoughts a chance. Just get over it and brace for the next session.

On a positive note, the following rope skipping went extremely well. I usually count rope revolutions, as they're an objective measurement of intensity. My goal for each round was to hit 300 revolutions - that's 2.5 revolutions per second. Although I didn't always reach that number, I came pretty close. Just as wednesday, I tossed in a set of Pull-Ups (á 8 repetitions) after every second round.

Overall, I feel extremely fit.

The Stats

Warmup
Squat			Clean & Press
Set #	Weight	Reps	Set #	Weight	Reps
1	70	5	1	32	5
1	80	5	1	40	3

Work
Squat			Clean & Press
Set #	Weight	Reps	Set #	Weight	Reps
1	92,5	5	1	42,5	5
2	105,0	5	2	47,5	5
2	120,0	5	2	55,0	1

The future

Tomorrow, I'll teach an afternoon class (two, to be precise. One of them is a conditioning class, though, so it doesn't count in this context) where I'll participate in the warmup, shadow sparring and sparring. I'll probably also shoot some video footage, not sure yet. If I do, I'll definately put it up here.

So long,

take care